Showing papers in "Human Relations in 2015"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reflect upon careering, securing identities and ethical subjectivities in academia in the context of audit, accountability and control surrounding new managerialism in UK Business Schools, and illustrate how rather than resisting an ever-proliferating array of governmental technologies of power, academics chase the illusive sense of a secure self through "careering"; a frantic and frenetic individualistic strategy designed to moderate the pressures of excessive managerial competitive demands.
Abstract: This paper reflects upon careering, securing identities and ethical subjectivities in academia in the context of audit, accountability and control surrounding new managerialism in UK Business Schools. Drawing upon empirical research, we illustrate how rather than resisting an ever-proliferating array of governmental technologies of power, academics chase the illusive sense of a secure self through ‘careering’; a frantic and frenetic individualistic strategy designed to moderate the pressures of excessive managerial competitive demands. Emerging from our data was an increased portrayal of academics as subjected to technologies of power and self, simultaneously being objects of an organizational gaze through normalizing judgements, hierarchical observations and examinations. Still this was not a monolithic response, as there were those who expressed considerable disquiet as well as a minority who reported ways to seek out a more embodied engagement with their work. In analyzing the careerism and preoccupation with securing identities that these technologies of visibility and self-discipline produce, we draw on certain philosophical deliberations and especially the later Foucault on ethics and active engagement to explore how academics might refuse the ways they have been constituted as subjects through new managerial regimes.
180 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose the concept of progressive performativity, which requires critical researchers to stimulate the performative effects of language in order to induce incremental, rather than radical, changes in managerial behaviour.
Abstract: A central debate in critical management studies (CMS) revolves around the concern that critical research has rather little influence on what managers do in practice. We argue that this is partly because CMS research often focuses on criticizing antagonistically, rather than engaging with managers. In light of this, we seek to re-interpret the anti-performative stance of CMS by focusing on how researchers understand, conceptualize and make use of the performative effects of language. Drawing on the works of JL Austin and Judith Butler, we put forward the concept of progressive performativity, which requires critical researchers to stimulate the performative effects of language in order to induce incremental, rather than radical, changes in managerial behaviour. The research framework we propose comprises two interrelated processes: (i) the strategy of micro-engagement, which allows critical researchers to identify and ‘ally’ with internal activists among managers, and to support their role as internal agen...
168 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a nine-month study of hairdressers working in hair salons was conducted to explore the function and meaning of liminal spaces in their everyday lives.
Abstract: This article draws attention to the spaces in-between and employees’ lived experiences of liminal spaces at work. It illustrates how and why liminal spaces are used and made meaningful by workers, in contrast to the dominant spaces that surround them. Consequently, the article extends the concept of liminality and argues that when liminal spaces are constructed, by workers, as vital and meaningful to their everyday lives they cease to be liminal spaces and instead become ‘transitory dwelling places’. In order to examine this shift from ambiguous space to meaningful place, the works of Casey (1993), amongst others, are used to make further sense of the space/materiality/work nexus in organizational life. This article is based on empirical data gathered from a nine-month study of hairdressers working in hair salons and explores the function and meaning of liminal spaces used by hairdressers in their everyday lives. The contribution of this article is three-fold; it argues that space is not just about dominant spaces; it extends the concept of liminality; and in connection with the latter, it demonstrates how transitory dwelling places offer fertile ground in which we might further develop our knowledge of the lived experiences of space at work.
168 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine whether and why respectfully engaging with other organizational members can augment creativity for individuals and teams, and they develop and test a model in which respectful engagement among organizational members facilitates relational information processing, which in turn results in enhanced creative behaviors.
Abstract: In four studies we examine whether and why respectfully engaging with other organizational members can augment creativity for individuals and teams. We develop and test a model in which respectful engagement among organizational members facilitates relational information processing, which in turn results in enhanced creative behaviors. We found a similar pattern across all four studies – respectful engagement is indirectly related, through relational information processing, to creative behavior at both the individual and team levels. These findings underscore the importance of respectful engagement in facilitating relational information processing and fostering creative behaviors at both the individual and team levels.
128 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a study of the introduction of lean in a large UK public sector hospital challenges this argument, based on a three-year ethnographic study of how employees make sense of lean adoption, describing a process in which lean ideas were initially championed, later diluted and ultimately eroded.
Abstract: Lean thinking has recently re-emerged as a fashionable management philosophy, especially in public services. A prescriptive or mainstream literature suggests that lean is rapidly diffusing into public sector environments, providing a much-needed rethink of traditional ways of working and stimulating performance improvements. Our study of the introduction of lean in a large UK public sector hospital challenges this argument. Based on a three-year ethnographic study of how employees make sense of lean ‘adoption’, we describe a process in which lean ideas were initially championed, later diluted and ultimately eroded. While initially functioning as a ‘mechanism of hope’ (Brunsson, 2006) around which legitimacy could be generated for tackling longstanding work problems, over time both ‘sellers’ and ‘buyers’ of the concept mobilized lean in ambiguous ways, to the extent that the notion was rendered somewhat meaningless. Ultimately, our analysis rejects current prescriptive or managerialist discourses on lean w...
125 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the prevalent assumption that self-reflexivity is the sole responsibility of the individual researcher limits its scope for understanding organizations and propose an innovative method of collective reflection that is inspired by ideas from cultural and feminist anthropology.
Abstract: While organizational ethnographers have embraced the concept of self-reflexivity, problems remain. In this article we argue that the prevalent assumption that self-reflexivity is the sole responsibility of the individual researcher limits its scope for understanding organizations. To address this, we propose an innovative method of collective reflection that is inspired by ideas from cultural and feminist anthropology. The value of this method is illustrated through an analysis of two ethnographic case studies, involving a ‘pair interview’ method. This collective approach surfaced self-reflexive accounts, in which aspects of the research encounter that still tend to be downplayed within organizational ethnographies, including emotion, intersubjectivity and the operation of power dynamics, were allowed to emerge. The approach also facilitated a second contribution through the conceptualization of organizational ethnography as a unique endeavour that represents a collision between one ‘world of work’: the university, with a second: the researched organization. We find that this ‘collision’ exacerbates the emotionality of ethnographic research, highlighting the refusal of ‘researched’ organizations to be domesticated by the specific norms of academia. Our article concludes by drawing out implications for the practice of self-reflexivity within organizational ethnography.
120 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating roles of three different types of fit perceptions on the relationship between harmonious and obsessive work passion and job performance.
Abstract: Despite a burgeoning of research that examines work passion, the relationships between harmonious and obsessive work passion and job performance have received insufficient attention. Using data from 233 employee–supervisor dyads from multiple organizations in Russia, this study examines the mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating roles of three different types of fit perceptions on this relationship. Results indicate that organizational identification mediates the effect of harmonious work passion – but not obsessive work passion – on performance. Only two types of fit perceptions – person–organization and demands–abilities – were found to moderate the relationship between work passion and performance. Finally, the results showed that person–organization fit perceptions moderate the indirect effect (through organizational identification) of both types of work passion on performance, whereas needs–supplies fit perceptions only moderate the indirect effect of harmonious work passi...
120 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, within-person analysis of a nationally representative longitudinal survey from the United Kingdom was conducted to investigate the relationship between long working hours, over-employment and under-employment associated with a reduction in subjective well-being.
Abstract: Are long working hours, over-employment and under-employment associated with a reduction in subjective well-being? If they are, is the association long or short-lasting? This article answers these questions through within-person analysis of a nationally representative longitudinal survey from the United Kingdom. The results suggest that long working hours do not directly affect subjective well-being, but in line with theories of person–environment fit, both over-employment and under-employment are associated with lower subjective well-being. However, over-employment is more likely for those who work the longest hours. The duration of the subjective well-being penalty associated with over-employment and under-employment is typically short, but subjective well-being levels tend to remain depressed for those who remain over-employed for two years or more. Results imply that state and organizational policies that reduce the incidence of long hours working are likely to enhance aggregate well-being levels.
110 citations
TL;DR: This article explored relational patterns of expatriates' social networks and their impact on expatriate change in cultural identity while working abroad, and highlighted the importance of examining cross-cultural relational dynamics on maintenance and change in expatriants' cultural identity.
Abstract: We explore relational patterns of expatriates’ social networks and their impact on expatriates’ change in cultural identity while working abroad. We go beyond mono-cultural assumptions and highlight the importance of examining cross-cultural relational dynamics on maintenance and change in expatriates’ cultural identity. We argue that strong ties in dense networks are most conducive to helping expatriates stay attached to a national culture. Cultural diversity in a social network provides the impetus for cultural identity change. Cross-cultural interconnectedness within an expatriate’s social network contributes to the development of multiculturalism in one’s cultural identity. We also discuss the effect of cultural identity change on expatriation and repatriation adjustment, and provide some practical implications for individuals as well as organizations. Overall, we offer a cross-cultural social network perspective in theorizing about the expatriation experience.
108 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a case study that details some of the experiences one of us had when working as a manager while trying to remain true to his critical sensibilities, and the story suggests that transforming management practice will be a constant struggle, and that the difficulties of achieving even small changes should not be underestimated.
Abstract: What happens when you try to engage with management practice as a critical management scholar by actually doing management? Although there have been calls for critical scholars to attempt such engagement, little is known about the practical challenges and learning that may be involved. This article therefore provides a case study that details some of the experiences one of us had when working as a manager while trying to remain true to his critical sensibilities. The story suggests that transforming management practice will be a constant struggle, and that the difficulties of achieving even small changes should not be underestimated. However, change is not impossible. Following Foucault, we argue that critical perspectives, when engaged in particular ways, offer resources through which we might challenge the dominance of managerialist thinking on a practical level − at least in the long run.
104 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a framework to study how economic inequality affects organizational performance, and suggest that economic inequality indirectly affects human development in the society and directly affects individual employees and their workplace interactions, as well as via the institutions in which the organizations are embedded.
Abstract: Research in a number of disciplines has shown that high levels of economic inequality adversely affect individuals and societies. Surprisingly, research examining the business consequences of societal level economic inequality is virtually nonexistent. In this article, I present a framework to study how economic inequality affects organizational performance. I suggest that economic inequality indirectly affects organizational performance via human development in the society, and directly via its effects on individual employees and their workplace interactions, as well as via the institutions in which the organizations are embedded. Further, I present a brief research agenda that seeks to illuminate the relationship between economic inequality and management and conclude with an overview of this special issue.
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of the global reinsurance industry involved a team of five ethnographers conducting fieldwork in 25 organizations across 15 countries, and they found that global team-based ethnography provides important insights into global phenomena, such as regulation, finance and climate change among others.
Abstract: Ethnography has often been seen as the province of the lone researcher; however, increasingly management scholars are examining global phenomena, necessitating a shift to global team-based ethnography. This shift presents some fundamental methodological challenges, as well as practical issues of method, that have not been examined in the literature on organizational research methods. That is the focus of this article. We first outline the methodological implications of a shift from single researcher to team ethnography, and from single case site to the multiple sites that constitute global ethnography. Then we present a detailed explanation of a global team-based ethnography that we conducted over three years. Our study of the global reinsurance industry involved a team of five ethnographers conducting fieldwork in 25 organizations across 15 countries. We outline three central challenges we encountered: team division of labour, team sharing and constructing a global ethnographic object. The article concludes by suggesting that global team-based ethnography provides important insights into global phenomena, such as regulation, finance and climate change among others, that are of interest to management scholars.
TL;DR: The authors examine five common, historically influenced assumptions underlying contemporary talk about secular and sacred callings: necessity, agency and control, inequality, temporal continuity, and neoliberal economics, and suggest possible solutions for rehabilitating calling to help people find some of the career and quality-of-life benefits that calling promises.
Abstract: How people talk about their work and careers matters. Desiring meaningful work, people increasingly describe work and careers as a calling. Such callings may be secular or sacred. Popular ways of talking about calling often create problematic, rather than positive, career and life outcomes. In this article, we examine five common, historically influenced assumptions underlying contemporary talk about secular and sacred callings: necessity; agency and control; inequality; temporal continuity; and neoliberal economics. We showcase some of the likely downsides of calling as these underlying assumptions interact with people’s everyday lives. We suggest possible solutions for rehabilitating calling to help people find some of the career and quality-of-life benefits that calling promises. In sum, this essay contributes to a more nuanced understanding of calling and agency in contemporary careers while also offering a framework and direction for developing research and practice on calling.
TL;DR: In this article, a multilevel analysis of nearly 120,000 observations across 31 countries between 2001 and 2008 was performed to study the moderating effects of economic inequality on the distinct roles of human and financial capital on different types of entrepreneurship.
Abstract: Based on a multilevel analysis of nearly 120,000 observations across 31 countries between 2001 and 2008, we provide novel insights into the moderating effects that economic inequality may have on the distinct roles that human and financial capital play on different types of entrepreneurship. As inequality increases, both forms of capital become weaker deterrents of entry into necessity entrepreneurship, whereas for opportunity entrepreneurship, only financial capital becomes a stronger predictor of entry. We also show that, regardless of inequality levels, both human and financial capital exhibit decreasing marginal returns on the likelihood of entry into necessity entrepreneurship, and that in the case of opportunity entrepreneurship, financial capital exhibits increasing marginal returns. However, inequality does impact the magnitude of marginal returns. Additionally, our statistical analysis provides quantitative support to extant literature arguing that higher levels of economic inequality foster both types of entrepreneurship albeit having a stronger impact on necessity entrepreneurship, and that human and financial capital have distinct effects on entry into necessity versus opportunity entrepreneurship. All these findings have pertinent policy implications and shed light on the under-researched role of inequality on entrepreneurship.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the implications of perceived management commitment to the ecological environment for employee attitudes and behaviors and found that perceived organizational support moderated the effects of management commitment on organizational justice, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors targeting the environment.
Abstract: In this article, we examine the implications of perceived management commitment to the ecological environment for employee attitudes and behaviors. Following deontic justice theory, which suggests that individuals are capable of feeling and expressing moral outrage when others are treated poorly, even if such treatment has no direct implications for themselves, we expected that employee attitudes and behaviors would be related to perceived organizational treatment of the environment. At the same time, we expected that these reactions would be moderated by how employees themselves were treated by the organization, in the form of perceived organizational support. In a study of employees and supervisors in a textile firm in Turkey, the results indicate that perceived organizational support moderated the effects of management commitment to the environment on organizational justice, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors targeting the environment.
TL;DR: The authors found that the probability of gay or lesbian applicants receiving an invitation for an interview was 5.0 percent (5.1%) lower than that for heterosexual male or female applicants.
Abstract: Deviations from heteronormativity affect labour market dynamics. Hierarchies of sexual orientation can result in job dismissals, wage discrimination and the failure to promote gay and lesbian individuals to top ranks. In this article, I report on a field experiment (144 job-seekers and their correspondence with 5549 firms) that tested the extent to which sexual orientation affects the labour market outcomes of gay and lesbian job-seekers in the United Kingdom. Their minority sexual orientations, as indicated by job-seekers’ participation in gay and lesbian university student unions, negatively affected their workplace prospects. The probability of gay or lesbian applicants receiving an invitation for an interview was 5.0 percent (5.1%) lower than that for heterosexual male or female applicants. In addition, gay men and lesbians received invitations for interviews by firms that paid salaries that were 1.9 percent (1.2%) lower than those paid by firms that invited heterosexual male or female applicants for ...
TL;DR: In this article, an affective conceptualization of identity dynamics during times of career change, incorporating the notion of unconscious desires, is presented at the intersection of narrative and psychoanalytic theory.
Abstract: Working at the intersection of narrative and psychoanalytic theory, we present in this article an affective conceptualization of identity dynamics during times of career change, incorporating the notion of unconscious desires. We propose that frictions in career change narratives, such as the paradoxical co-existence of coherence and ambiguity, allude to unconscious subtexts that can become ‘readable’ in the narrative when applying a psychoanalytic framework. We point to the analysis of 30 life story interviews with former management consultants who report upon a past and/or anticipated career change for illustration. By linking three empirically derived narrative strategies for combining coherence and ambiguity (ignoring the change, admitting the ambiguity and depicting a wishful future) with three conceptually informed psychoanalytic ego-defenses (denial, rationalization and sublimation), we provide an analytic framework that helps to explain why workers in transition may try to preserve both coherence ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that from an organizational point of view, the challenge is to devise new ways to configure (and consider) people as the authors of their work, which means assuming responsibility for, and constructively contributing to, the goals of the organizations to which they belong.
Abstract: In this article, we build on the results of a participatory action research project in healthcare to discuss a number of methods that can strengthen the link between reflexive work and authoring in organizational contexts. We argue that, from an organizational point of view, the challenge is to devise new ways to configure (and consider) people as the authors of their work. This means assuming responsibility for, and constructively contributing to, the goals of the organizations to which they belong. Combining insights from theoretical reflection and experience from the field, the article discusses the tools, process and material conditions for fostering practical reflexivity and organizational authorship. We conclude that much is to be gained if we distinguish between authorship and authoring. Authorship is the general process whereby managers and organizational members contribute to the reproduction of organizational realities. Authoring is constituted by the special circumstances whereby authorship is ...
TL;DR: This paper explored the corporeal porosity of workplace life through smell-orientated interview and diary-based methods and highlighted the interdependence of shared, personal, local and cultural elementals when experiencing smell in office-based work.
Abstract: This article contributes to a sensory equilibrium in studies of workplace life through a qualitative study of everyday smells in UK offices. Drawing on Csordas’ (2008) phenomenology of intercorporeality, we develop the concept of corporeal porosity as a way of articulating the negotiation of bodily integrity in organizational experience. We explore the corporeal porosity of workplace life through smell-orientated interview and diary-based methods and our findings highlight the interdependence of shared, personal, local and cultural elementals when experiencing smell in office-based work. Our analysis explores three elements of bodily integrity: ‘cultural permeability’; ‘locating smell in-between’; and ‘sensual signifiers’. This suggests that while the senses are part of the ephemeral, affective ‘glue’ that floats between and around working bodies, they also foreground the constantly active character of relationality in organizational life. Corporeal porosity, therefore, captures the entanglement of embodied traces and fragments – corporeal seeping and secretion that has hitherto taken a backseat in organizational studies of the body at work.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors rely upon an integration of proactive motivation and performance theories to investigate a neglected research question -when is proactive behavior likely to be rewarded or punished? They hypothesize that leader feelings of responsibility for constructive change moderate the relationship between follower proactive behavior and performance evaluation.
Abstract: In the present study, we rely upon an integration of proactive motivation and performance theories to investigate a neglected research question – when is proactive behavior likely to be rewarded or punished? Based upon a self-determination theory perspective of proactive motivation, we hypothesize that leader feelings of responsibility for constructive change moderate the relationship between follower proactive behavior and performance evaluation. The results of a time-lagged study support this hypothesis, indicating that follower taking charge behavior is rewarded with higher performance evaluations only when leaders feel responsible for constructive change. Following the discussion of findings, we discuss practical implications, potential limitations of the present study and directions for future research.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report on a comparative case analysis of leadership configurations in the context of acquisitions and propose the notions of leadership deficits and leadership surpluses in configurations, by exploring how ambiguous leadership spaces are constructed, and by pro...
Abstract: This article draws on distributed leadership and leadership-as-practice perspectives to report on a comparative case analysis of leadership configurations. The context of acquisitions is used in the study. Attention is given to the practices of members of the two leadership teams – one from each of the acquiring and acquired organizations – as they attempted to integrate their practices and redistribute leadership roles. The findings show that, despite expectations that distributed leadership would be achieved, the emergent configurations varied across the firms and consisted of distributed leadership, distributed leaderlessness, overlapping leadership and non-distributed leadership. These configurations were underpinned by members’ framings, relational practices and (non)exercise of agency. The article contributes to the leadership literature by proposing the notions of leadership deficits and leadership surpluses in configurations, by exploring how ambiguous leadership spaces are constructed, and by pro...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks, and note some countervailing tendencies towards re-centralization, but emphasize that this phenomenon remains largely confined to the municipal level.
Abstract: In this introduction to the special issue ‘Changing work, labour and employment relations in China’, we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region and sector. We note some countervailing tendencies towards re-centralization, but emphasize that this phenomenon remains largely confined to the municipal level. The five articles in this special issue address different aspects of both experimentation and decentralization in labor relations.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors extend collective PsyCap scholarship by applying a multilevel-multireferent framework to explore alternate conceptualizations of collective psychopharmaceutical capital.
Abstract: Psychological capital (PsyCap) has been conceptualized as an individual-level construct concerned with an employee’s state of positive psychological development. However, research has now started to examine PsyCap as a collective phenomenon. Although positive associations between team-level PsyCap and team-level functioning have been demonstrated empirically, there has been limited synopsis regarding the theoretical and measurement foundations of PsyCap at higher levels of analysis. This conceptual article extends collective PsyCap scholarship by applying a multilevel-multireferent framework to explore alternate conceptualizations of collective PsyCap. The framework furthers understanding of PsyCap at higher levels by exploring unique antecedents and emergent processes relating to five proposed forms of collective PsyCap. A series of testable propositions pertaining to the antecedent network of collective PsyCap are offered to guide empirical multilevel PsyCap research.
TL;DR: In this paper, a cross-country comparison of partner promotion processes in Big 4 professional service firms (PSFs) in Canada, France, Spain and the UK is presented. And the authors suggest that PSFs in different countries resemble each other very closely in terms of the requirements demanded of their partners.
Abstract: An expanding institutionalist literature on professional service firms (PSFs) emphasizes that these are ridden by contradictions, paradoxes and conflicting logics. More specifically, literature looking at PSFs in a global context has highlighted how these contradictions prevent firms from becoming truly global in nature. What it takes to make partner in the Big 4 is at the core of such interrogations because partners belong to global firms yet are promoted at the national level. We undertake a cross-country comparison of partner promotion processes in Big 4 PSFs in Canada, France, Spain and the UK. Synthesizing existing institutionalist work with Bourdieusian theory, our results suggest that PSFs in different countries resemble each other very closely in terms of the requirements demanded of their partners. Although heterogeneity can be observed in the way in which different forms of capital are converted into each other, we show there is an overall homogeneity in that economic capital hurdles are the most significant, if not the sole, set of criteria upon which considerations of partnership admissions are based.
TL;DR: This article used semi-structured interviews and attribution theory to examine how 20 black and minority ethnic and 20 white senior managers, from a UK government department made sense of significant career incidents in their leadership journeys.
Abstract: Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) employees appear to experience more difficulty reaching senior leadership positions than their white counterparts. Using Eagly and Carli’s (2007) metaphor of the labyrinth our aim was to give voice to black and minority ethnic managers who have successfully achieved senior management roles, and compare their leadership journeys with those of matched white managers. This paper used semi-structured interviews and attribution theory to examine how 20 black and minority ethnic and 20 white senior managers, from a UK government department made sense of significant career incidents in their leadership journeys. Template analysis was used to identify facilitators and barriers of career progression from causal explanations of these incidents. Although BME and white managers identified four common themes (visibility, networks, development, and line manager support), they differed in how they made sense of formal and informal organisational processes to achieve career progression. The findings are used to theorise about the individual and organisational factors that contribute to the leadership journeys of minority ethnic employees.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that Chreim's discussion is significant for the growing body of literature on distributed leadership and, by implication, for wider questions concerned with the appropriate unit of analysis in leadership.
Abstract: In this response to Samia Chreim’s (2015) discussion, it is argued that her article makes an important contribution to recent attempts to define non-heroic approaches to leadership The primary focus of her article is on the merger and acquisition process as experienced by five firms (an acquiring firm and four acquired business units), and a comparative analysis of transitional leadership patterns in light of explicit pre-merger undertakings given about, and consequent expectations of, subsequent leadership These expectations were about distributed leadership In some instances the acquired firms’ expectations were fulfilled while in others they were not As is pointed out in this response, Chreim’s discussion is significant for the growing body of literature on distributed leadership and, by implication, for wider questions concerned with the appropriate unit of analysis in leadership Recent scholarship is shown to have been wrestling with different ways of conceptualizing (and researching) leadership
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical understanding of competence as the inferred potential for desirable activity within a professional practice is presented, by employing the concept of "teleo-affective structur...
Abstract: This article outlines a theoretical understanding of competence as the inferred potential for desirable activity within a professional practice. By employing the concept of ‘teleoaffective structur ...
TL;DR: In this article, the role of categorization practices in discursive leadership during periods of strategic change is examined, and it is argued that category predicates play an important role in organizational and strategic change processes.
Abstract: Categorization is known to play an important role in organizations because categories ‘frame’ situations in particular ways, informing managerial sensemaking and enabling managerial intervention. In this article, we advance existing work by examining the role of categorization practices in discursive leadership during periods of strategic change. Drawing on data from an ethnographic action research study of a strategic change initiative in a multi-national corporation, we use membership categorization analysis to develop a framework for studying ‘category predicates’ − defined as the stock of organizational knowledge and associated reasoning procedures concerning the kinds of activities, attributes, rights, responsibilities, expectations, and so on, that are ‘tied’ or ‘bound’ to organizational categories. Our analysis shows that discursive leadership enabled a radical shift in sensemaking about organizational structure categories through a process of ‘frame-breaking’ and ‘re-framing’. In so doing, the leader co-constructed a ‘definition of the situation’ that built a compelling vision and concrete plan for strategic change. We go on to trace the organizational consequences and material outcomes of this shift in sensemaking for the company in question. We conclude by arguing that ‘category predication work’ comprises a key leadership competence and plays an important role in organizational and strategic change processes.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effect of having a labour contract on a range of employee outcomes (wages, hours worked, social insurance coverage and subjective well-being) for a sample of urban and migrant workers in China using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project.
Abstract: This article examines the effect of having a labour contract on a range of employee outcomes (wages, hours worked, social insurance coverage and subjective well-being) for a sample of urban and migrant workers in China using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) project. Using different methods, we find that the Labour Contract Law has larger effects for urban workers than for migrant workers on receipt of social benefits, subjective well-being and wages, but not for hours worked.
TL;DR: This article found that pay dispersion had an inverted U-shaped effect on employee participation, which in turn enhanced innovation and had a positive effect on voluntary turnover, which impaired innovation, and revealed the mediation mechanisms of employee participation and voluntary turnover in the relationship between pay disparity and organizational innovation.
Abstract: Building on social comparison theory, we posit that a firm’s pay dispersion affects its innovation through employee participation and voluntary turnover. By analyzing data collected at both employee and organizational levels from 1419 firms, we found that pay dispersion had an inverted U-shaped effect on employee participation, which in turn enhanced innovation. Pay dispersion had a positive effect on voluntary turnover, which in turn impaired innovation. These findings contribute to research on economic inequity by revealing the mediation mechanisms of employee participation and voluntary turnover in the relationship between pay dispersion and organizational innovation.